Australian writer apologizes for insulting Filipino food

MANILA, Philippines — An Australian writer based in Jakarta, Indonesia drew flak online from Filipinos after she said that Filipino food is “bland” and “worst” in Southeast Asia. 

Feminist activist Kate Walton commented: “Filipino food is definitely worst in the region” on Cornell University professor Tom Pepinsky’s tweet about the ranking of Southeast Asian food. 

Filipino food is def the worst in the region.

— Kate Walton (@waltonkate) May 5, 2019

Tom also ranked the Philippines in the bottom of his list, while Vietnamese, Laos, Malaysian and Singaporean top the list. 

Southeast Asian national cuisines, ranked***

1. Vietnamese
2. Lao
3. Singaporean/Malaysian
4. Thai
5. Burmese
6. Indonesian
7. Cambodian
8. Timorese
9. Philippine

— Tom Pepinsky (@TomPepinsky) May 4, 2019

“Lol Filipino Twitter saw my reply to @TomPepinsky about Filipino food and now they're mad. Sorry Filipino food is bland. I'll choose spicy food over it any day,” Kate tweeted after Filipinos bashed her. 

Though Kate apologized for her “wrong choice of words” in her tweet, she said she will not delete her tweet.

“Dear Filipinos: I apologise for offending you. My comment was about food preferences and poorly-phrased. What I meant was that Filipino food is my least favourite in the region. I apologise for my bad wording,” Kate said.

Dear Filipinos: I apologise for offending you. My comment was about food preferences and poorly-phrased. What I meant was that Filipino food is my least favourite in the region. I apologise for my bad wording.

— Kate Walton (@waltonkate) May 6, 2019

“I'm not going to delete the main tweets because then I'll be accused of hiding. I won't be engaging any more on this topic, though. I've apologised and there's not much else I can do. Cheers,” she added in another tweet.

I'm not going to delete the main tweets because then I'll be accused of hiding. I won't be engaging any more on this topic, though. I've apologised and there's not much else I can do. Cheers.

— Kate Walton (@waltonkate) May 6, 2019